Updates

Heart Center

 Research

Areas of Research

In addition to providing exceptional care, Texas Children’s Heart Center is dedicated to research that will improve the lives of children and adults with congenital heart disease everywhere. 

The researchers at our Heart Center lead groundbreaking research that advances the future of heart care. Over the past 70 years, our research has led to many now-standard treatments and procedures, and we continue to develop and test new treatments to expand options for those with complex and rare conditions.

Cardiology

The vision of the Cardiovascular Clinical Research group is to optimize the outcomes for people with congenital heart disease and reduce the disease burden for them, their families and the wider community. We use a multi-dimensional approach, which considers not only the biological and physiological characteristics of individual organ systems but also a patient’s symptoms, functional ability and their perception of their health and quality of life.

Cardiovascular Anesthesiology and Critical Care Laboratory 

The Cardiovascular Anesthesiology and Critical Care laboratory is dedicated to understanding the complex physiology of critically ill children and the development of monitoring tools to help bedside clinicians who are caring for the sickest pediatric patients.

Cardiovascular Genetics 

The Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic team is conducting research on a variety of conditions, including Marfan syndrome and related disorders, genetic arrhythmia disorders, TANGO2, sudden cardiac arrest and more.

Congenital Heart Surgery 

The Division of Congenital Heart Surgery at Texas Children’s has a variety of research endeavors in both clinical and basic science areas. We have achieved national recognition for our studies and are continuing to break new ground in some of the most exciting research areas to date, including establishing the Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering Lab in collaboration with Rice University.

Fetal Cardiology

The Fetal Cardiology team, which is a collaboration between the Heart Center and Texas Children’s Fetal Center, is investigating novel fetal therapies for improving left heart growth in fetuses with small left-sided structures, including catheter-based interventions and maternal oxygen.

Heart Center Tissue Bank

The Heart Center Tissue Bank at Texas Children’s Hospital is the largest pediatric tissue bank in the Texas Medical Center, housing a variety of tissue samples from patients with congenital heart defects. Our mission is to advance the research of congenital heart defects by fostering global research collaborations.

Heart Transplant

The pediatric heart transplant team physicians and researchers are involved in many areas of research, including trends and outcomes in pediatric heart transplantation, noninvasive prediction of acute transplant rejection and more.

John Welsh Cardiovascular Diagnostic Laboratory 

Our laboratory offers state-of-the-art molecular diagnostic testing for cardiovascular diseases and rapid molecular testing of heart tissue, lung tissue and other organ specimens and bodily fluids for viruses. These tests are focused specifically for viruses identified as causing heart disease in children and adults as well as in the fetus. The laboratory also offers genetic testing for DNA mutations associated with cardiac disease.

Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering Lab 

Research in the Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering laboratory focuses on the influences of biophysical cues, such as stress, strain, shear, substrate stiffness and electrical stimulation, on the development and maturation of heart cells and tissues.